Tuesday 28th February - The March Newsletter

I'm hoping to get the March 'Print and Post' newsletter up tomorrow sometime. I've spent the last week or so thinking about it, and then this afternoon typing as quickly as I ciild. Tomorrow morning I'll be adding the pictures and then, hopefully it will be ready!

I managed to take a few photographs in the garden this morning while it was still sunny. By the afternoon it was dull, dull, cold and dull outside. I am always caught out by February.  I think it should be more spring-like, and it hardly ever is. I should include it with othe other winter months, and then any spring days would be a bonus.

To encourage the warmer weather I knitted the first of a pair of wrist-warmers.

It is a random, multicoloured self patterning yarn, but I removed the bright turquoise and lime green sections. I'll use them in a hat or something. Oh yes, and there is the obligatory dropped stitch, temporarily secured with a pin until I do something about it in daylight tomorrow.  I'm thinking of making dropped stitches my signature detail.

You may be wondering why I reckon that making some wrist warmers will bring the warm weather... I have been so cold that I have been wearing wrist warmers and a cowl almost every day for the past few weeks. I'm hoping that knitting another set will cause a sudden change in the weather so that I end up putting them away before I get to wear them. That would suit me just fine.

Monday 27th February - Amaryllis catastrophe

The second stalk my amaryllis bulb collapsed last night, so I am exploring how well they work as a cut flower

It is beautiful - or rather, they are beautiful. Three flowers are fully open and there is another bud behind, out of sight.

'Bored of Lunch' came up trumps again for lunch; garam masala lamb. I cooked a primitive pilau rice, courtesy of Delia Smith's book 'Frugal Food'.  It's the same as this recipe, but you soften some chopped onion and chopped garlic in the oil, and I also added a chopped carrot.  For the pilau flavour I also used a small teaspoon  of  turmeric, a pinch of cinnamon and two cardomom pods. 

I've had fun placing an order for new embroidery threads ready for my next Cross Country Collaboration with Ang. I used a free program that Ang put me on to which will turn a photograph into a cross stitch chart - magic! I've massively simplified the chart it came up with, but it was a huge help in getting me started.

Meanwhile I continue with the sock knitting,  round and round and round I go...

Sunday 26th February - day of rest?

It doesn't feel restful though; there's the livestream of the Sunday service at 10.30  to start with. I knitted quite a lot of my second sock through this. I don't know if I will be able to sit through a church service without my knitting when I start going back.

Then, at 12 there's the zoom equivalent of meeting in the church hall for coffee the after the service. It has been a bit of a game changer for us 'chuch-at-home' people. The host has usually been to the early service, but there are several people who regularly drop in; one has long covid, another has very restricted mobility and is cared for in a nursing home, others are isolating, so what with one thing and another there are around a dozen of us who follow the service on the livestream and half a dozen regulars for the 12 chat afterwards.

Later, at 5pm, there is a fortnightly family zoom, set up by my cousin. Regulars are me and my brother, my father, his brother and cousins in Florida.

In between,  ah well,that's where the 'rest' happens...

....

Second sock

I've knitted about three of the seven inches yesterday and today until I need to add the marker for the heel. 

I weighed the first sock - 29g - and the remaining yarn - 30g - before I started the second sock. Then, I weighed the remaining yarn again after I had completed the toe and was ready to start the instep - 27.5g. 

This means that I will definitely knit the heels in a contrasting colour!

....

Reading

I finished 'The Lost Notebook' by Louise Douglas. It's a sort of gentle thriller, set in Brittany.  I chose it as much for the title and setting and price as for any other reason and it was - gently thrilling.... I might try her other books.

Now I am rereading John Buchan's 'Island of Sheep'. I can't remember it at all although I know I have read all the Richrd Hannay books several time. They are very dated, and even back in 1970 when we read 'The Three Hostages' some of the language was considered problematic. They are 'rattling good yarns' and I wonder if they will get the Roald Dahl treatment in due course?

Saturday 25th February - a day for looking at the weather from indoors

 There's a word for enjoying the weather from inside the house. 

Aha, I found it (thank you Internet) 

Gluggaveður - an Icelandic term anglicised as 'gluggavedur' - which means 'window-weather'. It's the kind of weather that is nice to look at through the window but not nice to be out in.

And exactly describes the weather today. It looked lovely and sunny, quite a lot of the time, but the wind was cruel, like icy knives. Yesterday I managed to get into the garden and do some tidying. Today I got no further than the front door step.

Ang's stitching arrived through the front door this morning. Would you just look at that!

From a photo that she took as well. Impressive. 

Now, what about March?

...

I've finished the first sock, apart from the heel. It weighs 29g, and I have 30g left... I should be able to do the same again, and, in theory have 1g left for the heels. Now, here's the thing; for this pattern, the heels are knit in exactly the same way as the toes. It makes them a bit pointy,  but Arne & Carlos (youtube knitting gurus) assure me that it will be fine when I wear the sock. So, in another 24 rows I will finish knitting this toe, and can find out how much it weighs, and also what the fit is like. Then I can decide whether to knit contrast heels, and if A & C are right in their opinion.

.....

Crockpottery 

I've decanted the lamb garam masala that was gently cooking all afternoon.  One double portion for tomorrow, and one for the freezer. It smells wonderful. So far, apart from the leek and potato soup, 'Bored of Lunch' has been quite a success. 

Friday 24th February - CCC Stitchery

My parcel of cross stitch was delivered today, so I can post pictures now; the final version;

(The orange lines of stitching are there to mark out the grid.)

Here's the whole story...

I eventually simplified my over ambitious plans and came to the conclusion a sampler would be an appropriate piece for a newbie. I took various elements from various pictures and started plotting;

I was really pleased with the design until I realised it should have been a portrait rather than landscape orientation. Oh dear.

After that it became a series of little challenges, all requiring modifications as I went along. The white space above the house... 

disappeared after I stitched it.... Baffling, considering that this time I did all my plotting on a photocopy of the actual fabric.

So, I came up with the idea of adding two ladies going towards a post box to fill this new space. They (we) were mirror images of each other on the chart,

But not any more! And one of us appears to be double jointed!

Thursday 23rd February- keeping on top of things...

Crockpottery

We've had  crockpot soup several times this week. 

Mixed soup; I saved extra liquid from a couple of casseroles and mixed them together, adding a handful of dried Chinese noodles and some extra water. That was pretty good!

Vegetable soup version 1; random vegetables cooked up together with stock, tomato puree etc

Vegetable soup version 2; as above, but made up to the required quantity with more random vegetables and some water

Mixed soup version 2 will be on the menu in due course as I have just decanted four portions of chicken curry from the crockpot, and the leftover juice will become the basis of another soup in a day or so!

Cross-Country-Collaboration

We have both posted February's stitchery to each other today. I think mine has missed the last collection of the day from our local postbox, but should be on its way early tomorrow morning.

Altered Book

The Lent Course, 'of Mice and Marshwiggles' started yesterday, (on account of Lent beginning yesterday, of course!)

Here are my pages in my altered book for Day 1 and Day 2

At the moment the topic is 'Turning' - in Prince Caspian, the children have to turn from the wrong path to the less promising, but right path. Lucy, the youngest, is the only one who can see Aslan at this stage, and has to persuade the others to turn back. This will require some apologies for not following the right path...  

I thought I might try some blackout poetry; this page is in the introduction to the play, and it was easy to find words about wrongdoing and guilt.  

The Four Quartets by T S Eliot

This is what I call a 'really slow read', but I am finding it engrossing. I have the commentary open at the same time. I read a stanza, read the commentary and then re read. It is completely engrossing.

Tuesday 21st February - an unbelievable day

Why am I describing today as unbelievable?

To start with I came downstairs very early for me - just past 8 am. I vowed to myself I would NOT HAVE ANOTHER COFFEE until after I had written up and sent off the emails from yesterday evening's lessons. It's the only way to persuade myself to get on with them - at the moment those lessons, especially the last one, feel like quite hard work; remember this?

We've moved her lesson to Monday evening now... she's nowhere near as flopped as this, and neither am I, thank heavens. It's the 'learning a new piece of music' phase - many people, including me, find this hard graft. Last time we started a new piece, 'yeah, it's okay, I suppose' became 'this is my new favourite piece' the following week, so fingers crossed this yesterday's piece...

I've also 'decluttered' four book of jazzy piece, posting them off to be used as more interesting sight-reading material than the 'Right at Sight', 'Improve your sight reading' type tutorials. Hands up is you LOVED sightreading new music when you were younger. What, hardly anyone? I am SO not surprised!

I've posted what I neded to post to another friend, and handed over two beginner crochet books for another friend's daughter - hooray! Stuff getting done!

Then, I cooked a lovely couple of pieces of salmon for lunch... in the CROCKPOT! wowsers! I thought fish could not be done in the crockpot, but this is what you do;

Line the base with greaseproof paper in order to be able to lift out the fish.

Put your flavourings in first - a slice or so of lemon, a little onion (I had some spring onions that I thought would do), herbs, sliced up garlic clove, that sort of thing. 

Then put in your fish, preferably in a single layer. Mine were fillets, so I cut then in half, arranged the thick pieces side by side, and then put in the thinner pieces slightly draped over each other.

Add your cooking liquid to nearly cover the fish - water, or water and white wine, or vegetable stock, or vegetable stock and dry cider in my case, with more lemon juice, and leave it alone for either one hour on high, or two hours on low. Check by flaking apart with two forks to make sure it is cooked through.

Oh yessss! That recipe is a keeper!

While it was doing its stuff, I opened my Hobbycraft delivery from yeterday, and made a Spring reath for outside.

 It is the vine wreath from before, and a 'spring flowers wreath' tied on with fine string. I'm going for the 'casual' look.

After lunch it was 'modge podge' time - a bottle of this was also in the parcel. It's a paper glue that lots of the junk journalers use, so I thought I would give it a go.

Here's my front cover; as I plan to use this throughout Lent I thought this was an appropriate picture. 

Here's an experiment with collage, using four different squares of origami paper, near the end of the book. My word, but it quickly becomes a messy process...

And finally, a hurried preparation of two pages at the front, because I will be needing one of them for tomorrow! 

I suspect some flowers may be added to those little Japanese vases on Thursday... 

And now it is time to heat some soup for our supper, before we watch Richard Osman's House of Games...

Why is it that sometimes I am a whirlwind of activity and energy, and on other days even watching tv seems like a Big Ask.... very weird.

   

Monday 20th January - Cake!

 Yesterday was an unsettling sort of day, but was happily improved by CAKE.

Biscoff cake, which I found on the Sainsburys website. And I quote;

Biscoff three-ingredient cake

This is one of those weird tricks of science that it's best not to think too hard about! If you're in need of a low-maintenance, minimal ingredient bake for a quick elevenses treat, look no further than this science-defying Biscoff bake, made from 1 x 400g of Biscoff spread, 2 large eggs and one and a half teaspoons of baking powder. 

Preheat your oven to 180C, 160C fan, gas mark 4 and line a 20cm cake tin. 

Put the spread in a bowl and heat in the microwave until just liquid. Whisk in the baking powder and then the eggs. Pour the batter into the baking tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer comesout clean. We're not telling you to melt even more Biscoff spread and pour ir over the top to decorate...but you won't be sorry.  

 So that's their version. I used half a jar, one egg and three-quarters of a teaspoon of baking powder. Whisking didn't really seem possible - it all became the most unlikely sort of mixture, reminiscent of very soft unbaked ginger biscuits. 

I combined it all as best as I could, dumped it into a 15cm tin and baked it in the air fryer at 160 for 20 mins, I think; I tested it with a skewer. 

It was delicious, but very rich and sweet and I am delighted that I DIDN'T melt more Biscoff spread and pour it on the top!

I served it in little squares, and then we went back for more, and then more more, and now there isn't any more.

The book club is shying away from reading T S Eiot's 'The Wasteland' and looks to be heading for the Stella Gibbons book, 'Nightingale Wood'. I hope they are not expecting something like 'Cold Comfort Farm'...

Sunday 19th February - Book Club date creepeth closer

I shall send an email round the group; our next meeting is in 10 days or so and I need to circulate my suggestions;

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss - creepy story of historical re-enacters rebuilding an ancient (stone age?) sacrificial construction and getting too involved in the rea-enacting

Ghost Music  by An Yu - bewildering story set in China as pianists life slowly unravels as she discovers more about her husband

Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons - much lighter, sharply observed and often hilarious story, about the difficulties for a young woman 'of a certain class' in finding a suitable husband, especially when you are completely financially dependent upon your parents

The Running Hare by John Lewis-Stempel - beautiful nature writing about creating a small traditional wheatfield

and my 'wild card';

I've never read 'The Four Quartets',  four longer poems by T S Eliot.  I wonder if anyone else in the club fancies having a go? I keep tripping across quotations that I have heard before 

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past.

Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,
Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,
Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.
The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless

The river is within us, the sea is all about us

April is the cruellest month

and many more.

I've sent off for a secondhand copy. along some study notes to help ne along

Saturday 18th February - falling asleep over the suduko

 A dodlrum afternoon after a busy morning.

I taught a catch-up lesson which was missed last week. It did not go well; the student wanted to shoe off her new electric piano, a birthday present, but zoom was having none of it. We were allowed to talk to each other, she was allowed to hear my piano, but it took a while before could arrange things so that I could hear hers. Ah well, we got there.

I loaded the crockpot with the next 'Bored of Lunch recipe', a peanut and chicken curry, and reheated yesterday's sausage casserole and potatoes for lunch.

Then, energy slump hit, big time. I  watched Pie-in-the-sky on TV and knitted more sock I've reached the cuff, so it's all ribbing now for the last inch.

So, what to post tonight? Do you fancy a sketch-a-day roundup? Here's the first half of January. 

Sunday 1st January, a special zoom church service

Monday 2nd January, three students, siblings, and their children came round with a Christmas present of wine and chocolates. We ate the chocolates earlier this week.

Tuesday 3rd January, admin day

Wednesday 4th Jan, saw something on the Internet about Paul Klee's drawings of trees

Thursday 5th, took the tree down.

Friday 6th, getting the January newsletter out, late (must get started on March newsletter)

Saturday 7th, thought of a design for the very last Postcard Project embroidery swap

Sunday 8th, amusing and interesting sermon involving the hare and the tortoise, and also the Roman military testudo, or tortoise formation 

Monday 9th, sewing the Postcard Project at top speed

Tuesday 10th, keeping an eye on the clock all day for workmen and delivery appointments 

Wednesday 11th, like it says, a normal Wednesday 

Thursday 12th, ah yes, finished the first pair of socks

Friday 13th, the last lesson of the week was too much for the student (and too much for me!)

Saturday 24th, started the first of another pair of socks (which is now approaching the finish line)

Sunday 15th, the daffodils delivered earlier in the week are flowering. Very cheering 

Sunday 16th, a summary of unfinished knitting and crocheting projects 

Friday 17th February - altered recipe, altered book, altered space

 Spaces; 

since lockdown, nearly three years ago, we have no 'inside' visitors, so our living space has slowly become adapted to our personal, selfish needs. THE settee has become MY settee. (W always called it a settee when I was a child, I can't imagine myself calling it a sofa).

It was only a 2-seater, and now it is a single seater, for the other side looks like this;

Heaped at the back, half on the arm and half on the back of my settee is a crochet blanket for the evening. Underneath us a row books I dip into from tome to time. My sewing tin is on top, and a shoebox of notebooks,  pens and oddments to finish.

My knitting basket is close at hand with the blue sock-knitting bag and mitre squares blanket on top. If we were to have visitors they would have to find another place to sit!

Recipes

I have the crockpot full of the 'Bored of Lunch' recipe for sausages and potatoes. Except I have left out the potatoes as the crockpot was too full, even by my miscalculations. I also left out the red wine (we haven't got any) and most of the beef stock (the pot was still rather full).

I took the potatoes, tossed them in oil salt and pepper, and treated them to 20 minutes at 180 in the airfryer. They came out looking, and tasting, fried. No surprise there, thinking about it. I tasted one to be sure. I can reheat them when we have the sausage casserole tomorrow for lunch.

Books

It has been brought to my notice that there is a whole world of people making junk journals from old books. Having watched YouTubes on how to go about this, I had decided that this was 'nah, far too fussy  for me'.

I made a collage yesterday afternoon, as a sort of mockery of what I saw on youtube, and because I was too tired to do anything sensible;

And, oh my, it came out rather well. The mouse is in a pocket; pockets are a Big Feature of junk journals.

 Then I followed a link to 'altered books'. Similar concept, but you reuse the pages that are already in the book, instead of replacing them 

I can tell you that my copy of 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, from English lessons when I was in the Middle Fifth at school (year 10 these days) will never ever be the same again.

Thursday 16th February - a taste of childhood - crockpottery

 The 'Bored of Lunch' leek and potato soup took us both back to our childhoods,  but not in a wonderful way.

I may have left it too long, even for the forgiving timings of a crock pot. So, the resulting soup was very bland by modern tastes. For Himself, it was too much like the potato and onion soup he frequently had as a child. He grew up in a very rural farming community, in an area without electricity or mains water. They grew a lot of veg in the kitchen garden, especially potatoes. Potato soup was cheap, nourishing and filling.

For me, the memory was of a holiday in a lakeside hotel somewhere in France. My grandmother hosted us all; her three children, their spouses, the eight grandchildren and several au pairs for a fortnight. We children, aged from about 10 to babies, were given an early supper, and the first course was always potato soup.  My memory of that soup is that it was much better than this one!

Today we had chicken and coconut noodle soup for lunch. I halved the chicken and coconut milk, but forgot to halve the other ingredients; the Thai red chilli paste, sriracha, a while red chilli, the sweet chilli sauce, the peanut butter...

Illustration in the book

This was delicious, and Very Warming on such a dreich day. The chinese noodles were massively overcooked, though. The instructions were to add them 20 mins before the end of cooking (on high). Next time, for there will definitely be a next time, I will add them nearer 5-10 minutes before the end.

We were supposed to go to the hygienist today, but a few miles from home, a warning light came on in the car. We pulled over and checked the handbook; it meant anything from something trivial to something dangerous like 'airbags might deploy without cause'. We turned round; I called the dentist's to apologise and he checked carefully checked over the car. It turns out that an abbreviated explanation is displayed for just a very few seconds when the warning comes on. This time it was merely a failed numberplate light... £5 each to buy, and we'll worth paying the £15 for having them replaced.

That's enough excitement for today.

Tuesday 14th February - Happy Valentine's Day

I made a small heart shaped chocolate cake, and himself has eaten most of it with some vanilla ice cream this evening. We shall finish it tomorrow. 

 The maths was correct,  I just didn't put the correct figure on the board for the weight of unused wool. 37g, not 27g, so I will have plenty for the second sock.

My new slowcooker recipe book 'Bored of Lunch' arrived yesterday. 

(Is that title grammatically correct?). I chose 4 recipes, 2 soups, 2 mains, and just went down the ingredient lists, ordering everything from Ocado to be delivered tomorrow.  Then I shall make up the recipes, one every day. Chilli con carne, potato and leek soup, honey shredded chicken, chicken noodle soup. I know, who needs a recipe for potato and leek soup? But the other recipes are full of interesting flavours; sriracha, hoisin, peanut butter, curry leaves..., none of which we have in the cupboard. 

All the recipes make 4 large servings so if I portion things out carefully I may well get more than this. I will often hold back some of the extra liquid to make the beginnings of another soup.

We tend to have a main meal at lunchtime, and then soup, or something on toast or sandwiches at about 6 in the evening. It seems like we were doing a sort of 12 hour overnight fast long before Dr Michael Moseley made this the latest healthy eating thing.

Tonight was smoked mackerel, bread and butter and a small salad of tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn and cooked green beans. For salad dressing I combined hot paprika tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. Excellent! 

Monday 13th February - decisions, decisions...

I didn't spend three years at university studying maths (and music) for nothing;

I spent a few fruitful minutes with my bag of knitting and the kitchen scales and have come to the conclusion that I might possibly have almost nearly enough wool for both socks. 

That won't be a problem, as I have some similar wool in a contrasting colour.  If I knit the cuffs and heels in the contrast I will have enough to complete the socks,  and hopefully they won't look too weird! 

I have finished the book club book, 'Unsettled Ground' by Clare Fuller. What do I think? I'm not sure... I think I did enjoy it. I can imagine all the people and places from the descriptions; I think it would make a brilliant film.

I've just started reading 'Old Filth' by Jane Gardham. I'm still trying to settle on my recommendations for next month's read as it is my turn to pick. It is making me surprisingly nervous in case nobody likes any of them!

'Old Filth' is the story of a lawyer, nicknamed Old Filth, now widowed and retired in Somerset after a life living and working in Hong Kong. 'Filth' means 'failed in London, try Hong Kong'. 

So far the books on my list are

Nightingale Wood - Stella Gibbons

Ghost Music - An Yu

One Fine Day - Mollie Panter-Downes

The Running Hare - John Lewis-Stempel (not quite finished this one)

The Art of Invisible Detection - Robert Goddard

Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss

Wintering - Katherine May

I may add 'Old Filth' as well...

From which I need to select 3 or 4.

I have read them all; but I do want to read them again anyway.

I'll post more about them tomorrow. 

Sunday 12th February

I've let myself get into half term mode before finishing off all the lesson writeups from last week; still got the two from Thursday to do. Ah well. Tomorrow is another day...

But my sock is now 10.5 inches long, that's 7 for the sole and halfway along the leg. I'm now wondering if I'm going to have enough wool to knit the other one.... a starting point will be to weigh my sock, and weigh one of the needles, and weigh how much yarn is ieft, and do some sums...

And some cross stitch happened today as well. Not as much as I would have liked, but finishing off a tablecloth in time for lunch was a higher priority. It was when I threw the tablecloth and napkins into the laundry basket yesterday that I realised that I didn't have another one. I cut and pinned a piece of leftover fabric yesterday after lunch, sewed for a while in the afternoon and finished it just in time today. It was a close-run thing.

Serious Moment;

Seeing some of the rescues on the news, of people, children even, brought out from the terrible destruction in Turkey and Syria has been .... Well, words fail me. Tomorrow I shall be donating to DEC as my contribution towards the relief effort there. I try and nake donations every month, to the local foodbanks, and also to various other charities that work towards improving conditions for people all over the world. I am fortunate in my life and it feels right to share my good fortune.

Saturday 11th February - Modern Plumbing

It's not until it stops working that you really appreciate how wonderful mains drainage is.

We share our 'dirty water' drain, sewer, call it what you will, with three neighbours.  It runs along the back gardens; we are number 3, and an elderly and rather frail couple next door are number 4. The drain blocks every year or so between their house and ours  and yesterday afternoon was one of those occasions. 

I think the problem is that they just don't use much water; since the water meters arrived they've installed a water saver device in the cistern. They have showers instead of baths, don't run a dishwasher and don't create much in the way of laundry. So the drain silts up and then blocks.

It was a long cold job; eventually our neighbour was persuaded that at 90 years old his days of unblocking drains were really long since over, and he phoned his home services insurance. Hey ho. Everything was sorted by six... 

It's a bizarre situation. He, or his insurance company, is responsible for the drain as far as the boundary fence. We, or our insurancecompany, are responsible for the drain from our manhole as far as the boundary with the next house along. Which leaves a length of drain between our manhole and the boundary fence on the blocked side not covered by either householder, us or the elderly couple next door. Apparently that the Water Company's responsibility.  

Himself's great victory yesterday was to persuade the drain clearing man that the blockage was not in our garden, and would he please stay until he cleated it, rather than packing up and telling us to calk the Water Company. Like I said, bizarre....

Friday 10th February - Ang's postcard

Of course, if you've been reading Ang's blog you will know all about this already. Here's my post;

Once again we started with the address but I stopped there. I added the Ukrainian stamp in a later month. Later I sewed the date of the Queen's death, in September, with the ciphers for her and King Charles. Ang added the postmark right at the end of the project. 

So starting at the top left; 

Ang made the cross stitch vegetable row, and also recorded the date of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's return to England. 

The clock is one of mine, using a piece of braid from Ang as the face. The hands are set to 8pm; this was the time of the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, and there was an international  movement for people to take a minute at 8pm, local tine, to pray for peace. 

Ang stitched the sunflower and the Ukrainian flag, and also the blue emblem for the World Day of Prayer, held every where on the first Friday in March. She has also recorded the birth of the latest grandson.

Next row; I sewed a favourite scene looking across the valley from the lavender walk at Standen.

Ang added one of the felt birds she made for her garage sale in the autumn.  She also sent one to me!

The Postcard Project label and our signatures is under the bird, stitched by Ang.

 I did the tree for December; I was late, and added the Epiphany blessing below.

Ang did a sample of Japanese boro stitching, and I sewed an autumn leaf pile.

Bottom row; my first contribution to the project was a labyrinth, and one of my summer efforts was the teatray. When it was so hot I would take a tray to the coolest part of the garden in the shade of the apple tree.

Ang created a picture of her bicycle using Dorset buttons which she made for the wheels. And that's her picture of her washing line. I did laugh when that arrived one month!

There you have it, the complete postcards.

I find it extraordinary that Ang and I have never met, not even spoken on the phone; it has been quite an old-fashioned pen-pal style collaboration, but using text, email, whatsapp and even letters, included in the mailings. Yet we have grown from a tentative start into a warm friendship with a surprising amount in common in our lives.  

I hope you have enjoyed watching our progress.  Pictues gor the first month of our Cross Country Collaboration should be appearing in a few weeks; only 18 more stitching days to the end of the month...

Thursday 9th February - my postcard

Ang is two doing complete blog posts of the Postcard project over at Tracing Rainbows today and tomorrow; hers today and mine tomorrow. It seems a bit of a cop-out for me to leave it all to her, so here I go;

This one is mine to keep. Ang has plans to frame hers; I'm not decided yet. We started with an abbreviated form of our name and address. Ang added the stamp at the same time but I delayed mine for a month or so. That does mean mine has one fewer picture.

Top left, the kitten is mine, one of my early efforts. The tree, also mine, came much later. I was trying out blackwork patterns for the leaves. The Delft tiles, again mine, were inspired by a tiles alcove in the gardens of Standen, a National Trust property I visited several times in the Summer. Next row, still mine (you'll be wondering if Ang did any of the embroideries in a minute) is a sort of celtic pattern I took from a Gail Lawther book. Then my last embroidery, the music, which is a couple of lines from a folks song I learned way back in 1977 when I became interested in folksongs at university. 

Hurrah, here's Ang's stitchery at last! Her Ang's Epiphany cross stitch on 16 count Aida, such teeny tiny stitching, of the three wise men.

Next, my first cross stitch picture (14 count) since I was sewing on binka fabric in the infant class. I did it in November, inspired by Ang blogging about coffee and walnut cake at the beginning of the month. I suddenly wanted one, so made 2, one to eat, and one as an embroidery. 

The pictures in the bottom row are all Ang's; you'll have to zoom in to pick out the details of the patchwork memory bear. Ang added this while she was busy making real memory bears. These are bears made for friends and family where someone close died; she cuts the pieces from favourite shirts to make a Teddy bear. Lovely. Next, a little bit of knitting including tiny needles; this was for Autumn. The cross, palm leaves and risen sun were for Easter,  and the terracotta tile is a copy of oneshe was given as a present.

I stitched the 'label' down the centre seam, and we both signed it. Ang commemorated the death of the Queen and accession of King Charles.

Her final addition was the postmark.

There you have it! 

I will blog her postcard tomorrow (which she posted today)

Wednesday 8th February

Every so often I have a 'not sleeping' night. Last night was one of them. I listened to various random programmes on BBC sounds until I eventually managed to drop off.

There is a suitable series called 'The Boring Talks'. I am slightly concerned because I find some of them quite interesting. And there is always the 'Slow Radio' series where nothing much happens.

We had posh 'second breakfast' which improved the first half of the morning.

Then an excellent zoom chat-and-piano lesson before lunch.

I had a zoom routine rheumatology clinic appointment in the afternoon. These zoom appointments work really well for me; if I have to go in person then that's a whole day of travelling and hanging around. Today I just logged in at home. It was one of those appointments where you almost feel you are wasting their time because everything is stable and nothing needs doing, but it is always worthwhile knowing that  othing has changed.

One more lesson, supper, and now I am swathed in one blanket and knitting another;

This is the current mitre square blanket I have at hand for when I want to do something but don't have enough brain to do anything. 

Which pretty much describes how I am now.

Knitty Gritty - Mitred Square Blanket - something to knit in Lent

 I have made two of these blankets now. One was a trial run to make a cat blanket, using scrap yarn that I found when clearing my Godmother's house back at the beginning of 2020. The other is draped across my knees as I am typing!

This post from January 2021 shows the results.

You can find the tutorial, pictures, instructions and tips on Louise Tilbrook's blog here. I'm knitting a third one, using slightly thicker double knitting yarn cakes. I like the slightly confusing way it changes the appearance of the squares when a new colour starts part way. 

The other blankets I made used solid colours, so I was more able to control the pattern and placement of colours.

Following Louise Tilbrook's instructions, and using the DK acrylic yarn and 4.5 mm needles, I cast on 20 stitches, placed a marker and cast on another twenty. Then startedknitt knitting. 

I'm modifying the original version in a couple of ways because I want this to be 'mindless' knitting;

I am making no attempt to ensue that all the diagonal lines created by the decreases go in the same direction.

Instead of decreasing either side of the marker on right side rows, and not decreasing on odd side rows, I do every row the same; knit t the marker, slip marker, k2tog, knit to the end. Because, mindless.

Some of my squares begin with 40 stitches each side of the marker, ie 4 times the size. Becasse, wy not? It all adds to the randomness. 

The size of your squares will depend on the yarn and needles and number of stitches. It is up to you. 

I find I can complete a 20 by 20 stitch square in about 15 minutes, and a 40 x 40 square takes, unsurprisingly, closer to an hour, or four day's worth of knitting.

Tuesday 7th February

The first of my on-line purchases dropped through the letterbox today. If you have been reading the monthly 'print and post' newsletter, you will know that my small self-indulgence for this month is a small vase of fresh flowers.

The bunch of daffodils I was given at the beginning of the month have all gone over now, and are now in the compost bin - I was so sad to see them go. They have been replaced by this sweet little posy which came is a small box designed to go through the letterbox.

I always save the bits and pieces left over from arranging flowers, not that these took much arranging, and put them in this little pebble vase I bought years ago, back in the 1970s from a little pottery shop near where we lived when we were first married;

The information on the website, flowerbe.co.uk, suggests that the flowers can be dried so I shall see what happens.

I have spent most of today on the first of the Cross-Country-Collaborations. So far I om on version 3 of the final chart, but version 4 is in progress as several rows of holes have mysteriously relocated themselves from near the top of the chart to near the bottom. I can't make out how this happened, as it is all plotted onto a photocopy of the actual fabric. Ah well. Improvisation is the necessity of invention. r something. I think I can shuffle the elements around so that no-one will know. Wait... ah. Well, just don't tell, ok?

I had no idea until I started trying to chart a design quite how difficult it is to figure it all out. My final design is relatively simple after my initial plans proved beyond my skill. 

I'm also completely confused as to whether I am left-handed or right-handed for sewing any more. I thought I was totally left-handed - I certainly was all last year! This piece of fabric is too big and vulnerable to distortion for me to be happy to clamp it in a hoop. After some trial and plenty of error, I seem to have settled on resting the fabric on the work table, with the area I am stitching overhanging the edge. I then poke the needle down through the holes with my right hand and push it back up with the left. Except when for some unknown reason I swap hands. It seems to work reasonably well for me either way. Bizarre.     

No pictures yet...

Monday 6th February

I have a daily task checklist... most of them only take moments, and not all of them get done every day;

1. Lectio 365 (10 minute daily prayer app on my phone)
2. The Psalm for the day in a book called Through the Year with the Psalms
3. A short chunk of New Testament, currently St Matthew's gospel
4. Sketch-a-day
5. Duolingo lesson
6. Deep breathing for five minutes, for  Zoe app study
7. Blog
8. Step count; target is 2023 but I do aim for a bit higher
9. 5-minute ballet video
10. Sewing project
11. Knitting
12. Art
13. Piano practice
14. Notebook Swap
15. Eat some fruit, or have a smoothie
16. Eat some fresh salad
17. Housework

If I do at least 10 things then I reckon it's a good day! I reckon to do the first six items before I even get out of bed...

Ballet hasn't happened for a couple of weeks but I might go back to it soon. The notebook swap entries aren't getting written either at the moment, but there's plenty of time before the end of the month.

Today I've done 12 so far; I've included knitting in my tally so I shall stop burbling in a few minutes and knit a few rows to make this come true. 

How do I manage? Why do I have a list? It's easy to get around a dozen or more items done through the day, especially when I'm not the one in charge of meals, laundry and general kitchen chores! As far as housework goes, my share consists of cleaning the bathroom and doing some hoovering. 

I started the list, which has morphed through various versions over time, during the first lockdown. I felt completely adrift when my hectic teaching schedule just stopped, without notice, and having a list helped me fill the day.

Besides, it looks colourful in my diary. This picture is from  couple of weeks ago. I see piano practice didn't happen all week. Neither was I very diligent regarding housework either!

Sunday 5th February

I have had a happy weekend of online shopping - I am still not comfortable visiting shops due to my lung condition, so online shopping has been my way going about things.

Back in the old pre-internet shopping I used catalogues at Christmas time, as much for the joy of having parcels arriving at my home as for sourcing unusual presents. Now I enjoy online shopping for the same reason.

I've downloaded a number of free cross stitch patterns, so I have these already in my sweaty fingers. I also ordered a couple of small kits, when I was having a crisis of confidence on Friday night. What else? A a posy of flowers, some knitting needles, a packet of variegated embroidery threads... I'm looking forward to the post arriving this week! 

I spent most of today drawing out my plan for February's Cross Countyr Collaboration. Unfortunately, when I looked back from my chart to my chosen section on the fabric I discovered my chart was landscape orientation and the section is portrait orientation.  How did that happen?  

I have now photocopied the fabric on the printer, enlarging it to 140%, so that I can draw the chart directly on the copy. Much easier.

The forethought afterthought sock....

Here's how... when I the sock was 7 1/2 inches long, I used a contrast yarn to knit across the sole. That's the forethought bit.

I will complete the sock, and then use one needle to pick up the stitches on one side of the contrast row, and another needle for the stitches on the other side. Then I will carefully snip away the contrast yarn and start making the heel. That's the afterthought bit. 

I've been studying videos and it looks plausible. Possible even...

I'm reading 'The Running Hare, The Secret Life of Farmland' by John Lewis-Stempel. I tripped across the book while looking for pictures of running hares (no, there aren't any in my CCC crosstitch!). I started reading it on the amazon 'look inside' pages, and was hooked.

A possible contender for the book club list. I think I've got my selection sorted now; one weird and modern, one set in the 1940s, this one and maybe a Stella Gibbons.

Saturday 4th February

The sock is growing... slowly. I started from this point after a little break

My main problem was knowing when to add the heel.

I've now reached this point and I reckon a few more rows and I'll be there. 

I'm doing an 'afterthought' heel, where you knit the whole sock as a tube, and add the heel later, by - gasp - snipping into your sock, picking up the stitches and making the heel. Except mine will be a 'forethought' heel... I'll post a picture soon.

The simplest job - 'could you make some holes in this plastic milk bottle lid so I can gently sprinkle water onto my micro green seedlings' - doesn't always go as I envisaged;

Last time, I just made a few holes in the lid with a kitchen skewer. This time I asked for help as it was quite hard work getting through the plastic.  I didn't expect the entire tool kit to appear. Still, I have got a water sprinkler as recommended by the book. The kale micro greens, sown on Monday, are up, and I have started off some pak choi. I've never managed to persuade it to grown in the vegetable patch, so I am trying micrograms instead.

I've decided not to grow anything 'cabbagey' as all I have ever harvested in that line has been holes. I should net the plants, but that is not going to happen.

I'm thinking that this year I will go for tried and tested; spinach, broad beans, French beans, peas, spaghetti squash, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, spring onions, potatoes and lettuces. These have all worked for the last few years. I am intrigued though by the idea of trying to grow peanuts, having seen peanut seeds in a catalogue.

 

Friday 3rd January - first day of my weekend

I don’t teach any piano kessons on Fridays anymore so my weekend starts on Friday now. Lovely. I persuaded myself to deal with various admin tasks in the morning, and spent the afternoon fiddling around with cross stitch designs. 

This is the picture I was thinking of doing, something I did in a diary;

The original is only about two inches tall, on a page in December 2019. A friend and I went for afternoon tea at an extremely posh hotel near us. We'd both had a pretty tough couple of months, so treating ourselves and having a long catch up was a good way to finish the year.

It was getting dark when we left, and I took a couple of pictures on my phone as we left;

to remind myself of the day, and these became the little painting. 

There's something about silhouetted trees against the inky shaded sky that I just love looking at.

A couple of hours has convinced me that I don't yet have the knowledge and experience to turn my paintings into a cross stitch grid. I'll adapt a kit this time around, and learn from that.

I shall turn my attention to 'Death in Paradise' on the TV and relax with some knitting instead.